ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Free as They Want to Be: Artists Committed to Memory – co-curated by Deborah Willis and Cheryl Finley, Ph.D. – is a presentation of contemporary art inspired by historical memory. The exhibition considers the idea of personal freedom - through comparative perspectives – through the lens of photography & film’s role in remembering the legacies of slavery. It also examines the social lives of a diverse group of Americans within various places — on the land, at home, in photographic albums, at historic sites, and in public memory. Featuring pieces from some of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists (Bisa Butler, Carrie Mae Weems, Dawoud Bey, Hank Willis Thomas, Radcliffe Bailey, and many others) alongside historical pieces like 19th-century portraits by photographer J.P. Ball, the exhibition explores migration, identity, and the African diaspora. 

Free as They Want to Be: Artists Committed to Memory is curated by Cheryl Finley, Ph.D. and Deborah Willis, Ph.D. and originated as a FotoFocus exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio on the occasion of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. The traveling exhibition is organized by Curatorial Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.

ABOUT THE ARTWORKS

This exhibition includes artists working in photography, video, projection, sculpture and mixed media installation. The themes explored by these artists are as wide-ranging as their aesthetic practices are, while also being deeply informed by a fierce engagement with archival research. The exhibition creates a framework in which to reimagine and reflect on historical events, as well as public and personal memory.

ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

In concert with the exhibition’s originating curators and in partnership across three local organizations situated on historically significant sites, the exhibition is being adapted for a first-of-its-kind, site-specific presentation in southern Louisiana. Led by Baton Rouge Gallery – center for contemporary art (“BRG”), this presentation will simultaneously acknowledge the local relevance of the themes addressed by the originating curators while supplementing them with works from respected artists based in southern Louisiana.

The adaptation of Free as They Want to Be: Artists Committed to Memory for its presentation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will see the works thoughtfully allocated across three historically resonant sites so the original curatorial thesis literally inhabits Baton Rouge’s built memory: (1) BRG, which inhabits a former pool house that was the site of the 1963 Baton Rouge Swim-In protest; (2) Southern University, an HBCU on river-parish land shaped by plantation histories; and (3) The West Baton Rouge Museum, a regional history museum situated on the grounds of a former sugar plantation that interprets local histories around labor and sugar.